Effective monitoring resulted in record seizures in recent polls in 4 states, UT: CEC

Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra on Thursday said effective monitoring resulted in record seizures in the recent assembly elections in four states and a Union territory, and a strong vigil led to drastic increase in the seizures in 2021 which were more than 4.5 times the figures in previous elections in these states in 2016.

Addressing the 74th batch of Indian Revenue Service (IRS) Officer trainees here, he said the increased involvement of IRS officers with the Election Commission (EC) can be gauged by the fact that a separate 'election cell' has been created by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) in September this year to expedite pending matters of investigation of falsity in affidavits filed by contesting candidates and analysing contribution and annual reports of political parties.

A former IRS officer, Chandra, was chairman of CBDT before taking up the position of the election commissioner in the poll panel.

Acknowledging the importance of expenditure monitoring during the elections, Chandra said EC is committed to ensure free, fair and inducement free elections in the country. He observed that many IRS officers as expenditure observers play a vital role in ensuring that money power does not vitiate the level playing field amongst the contesting candidates.

''The chief election commissioner (CEC) also highlighted that effective monitoring has resulted in record seizures in the recent assembly elections held in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry. The concerted efforts and strong vigil by the officers resulted in a drastic increase in seizures in 2021 which were more than 4.5 times the seizure figures in previous elections in these states held in 2016,'' a statement by the EC said.

Addressing the officers, the CEC noted that this batch of IRS officer trainees is the second ever batch of any Group A service which is being trained in electoral process, as an integral part of its probationer training programme.

In a separate event, Chandra addressed officials of Bangladesh Election Commission (BEC) at India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM), a body which functions under the aegis of the Election Commission. IIIDEM is organising a capacity development programme for the BEC officials.

Addressing the officials, Chandra said these training sessions provide a platform to share and mutually learn the best practices in election management. Such courses also provide an opportunity for the officials to get good exposure of each other’s methodology of conducting the elections. PTI NAB SRY

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